The first time I watched this movie, I had trouble explaining why I considered this the best Peckinpah film, and one of the best films ever made. On a rewatch, it finally clicked; this is one of the most personal and self loathing films I’ve ever seen.



The main character of the film, Bennie, is a piano player at a dingy Mexican bar, and he’s approached by some (possibly gay) hitmen to collect a bounty for them; the severed head of a local gigolo named Alfredo Garcia. The only reason Garcia has a bounty on his head is because he impregnated the daughter of a crime lord, but Bennie doesn’t care about the morality of the situation, he just wants to get paid. When the hitmen leave the bar, he interrogates his coworkers, and discovers that his girlfriend, Elita, slept with Alfredo Garcia for three nights. When he goes to confront Elita, she reveals that Garcia went on an alcoholic bender and died in a car crash. After this revelation, Bennie and Elita go on a journey to find Alfredo Garcia’s body.



I remember watching the first hour of this film and being confused at first. I still loved it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Every single review I read about this movie said it was brutal action thriller, but instead I was treated to a tender romance between Bennie and Elita. There’s a pivotal scene in the first half, where both characters rest at a tree stump, and Bennie asks for Elita’s hand in marriage, there’s a deep sadness and regret in both of their eyes. Do they wish they did this earlier? Is it already too late? Maybe it is, but all they can do is hope. Even during what is arguably the “happiest” scene in the film, there’s still dread on the horizon. The camera focuses on 2 bounty hunters passing by the couple in their run down car, watching Bennie and Elita like vultures. It’s almost like Elita knows that her time is running up, she begs for Bennie to just give up and run away from the bounty, but Bennie’s too far gone to give up.



Then the second half of the film happens. Bennie crawls out of a shallow grave, covered in blood, sweat, and tears. He was knocked out by those same bounty hunters that passed him by before. He’s buried in the same grave as his only love, Elita, and the headless corpse of the man who started this whole fiasco; Alfredo Garcia. Bennie ends up getting his revenge on the bounty hunters, and he finally collects the head of Alfredo Garcia. The rest of the film is Bennie losing his mind and going on a murder spree, he is a man with nothing left, no one to love, and no reason to go on. He becomes so delusional to the point where he develops psychosis and starts talking to Alfredo’s severed head, cursing at him for sleeping with the love of his life. Bennie turns to alcohol as an escape, but there is no way out for him, except death. At the end of the film, he hunts down the mob boss who wanted Alfredo Garcia’s head in the first place, and Bennie ends up shooting the boss dead. Bennie tries driving away with Alfredo’s head, but he ends up perishing in a haze of gunfire.



The entirety of the film, is Bennie being emasculated. There’s a scene where he’s in a hotel room, bleeding from his scalp, covered in dirt, and completely drunk, and he can’t even bear to look at himself in the mirror. He desperately wants to be a man, but he has no control over anything in his life. Bennie’s psychotic ramblings towards Alfredo Garcia’s severed head, gives a window into his thought process. Bennie thinks that Garcia stole the love of his life, Elita, and now he’s taunting him from beyond the grave. Alfredo represents everything Bennie wants to be; but can’t. The tragedy of this film is that Bennie can’t even live up to a dead man. He’s self destructive, envious of other men, and deeply cynical about life. At a certain point in the film, he forgets about the money; it’s useless to him now anyways. He just wants to settle the score with the man he blames for ruining his life. His only friend. The rotting head of a gigolo that he never even met.



The violence of this film is one of its best strongpoints. Unlike the stylized bloodshed of The Wild Bunch, or the brutality in Straw Dogs, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is completely void of any glamour to its violence, instead it’s sudden and clunky. Characters die mid sentence, there’s barely any blood when they get shot, and there’s no sense of satisfaction among the characters who do survive. There is no will to win, just a desire to get it over with. There’s a scene where a hitman gets shot and instead of falling over, he rolls and starts reaching out for his dead mate, desperately trying to grab onto the only thing he cares about. The most brutal part of the film is offscreen, one can only imagine how decayed the rotting, fly covered head of Alfredo Garcia is. The rest of the movie shows its brutality through the rugged hotel rooms that Bennie inhabits, through his cracked and bleeding scalp that never heals, and through the dirt of the shallow grave he dug himself out of; splattered all across his clothes. Peckinpah always said he wanted to demystify violence in his films, and unlike his other efforts, I think Peckinpah succeeded with portraying violence as the raw and ugly state of affairs that it actually is. This is a drama film first and foremost, the bloodshed is a byproduct of the characters animalistic rage, and the world they inhabit.



There’s a scene where Bennie has intercourse with Elita, and he ends up catching lice. He pours alcohol on his crotch to drown the lice, and he has a familiar look of shame on his face. He has that same look later on when Elita gets raped. It comes back for a final time when he realizes that Elita died next to Alfredo Garcia’s body. It’s like the world is taunting him, telling him “you’ll never be the man you want to be”.



Bennie is obviously intended to be Peckinpah. From the sunglasses, to the mannerisms, everything about Bennie screams Peckinpah. I think that makes this film even more interesting than it already is. Bennie’s self destructive alcoholism, his constant anxiety of not living up to his own standards for masculinity, his blatant disregard for anything sacred, and his fears of being out performed by other men, were all some of Peckinpah’s biggest fears. What you have here isn’t just a film; it’s a man trying to find out where he went wrong.



I genuinely can’t overstate how great this film is. This film contains my favorite dialogue of all time, (My personal favorite line is “Have a drink Al!”) the score is impeccable, the cinematography is stunning, the grimy and filthy tone is excellent, everything about this movie is a 10/10. What makes this an all timer for me though, is how deeply personal this is. Peckinpah’s biggest insecurities shine through the character of Bennie, and it’s utterly mesmerizing to watch such a bleak portrayal of oneself. I never thought a film about a man talking to a severed head would be one of the best films I ever saw, but I can guarantee that this is an exceptional film in every metric.

The first time I watched this movie, I had trouble explaining why I considered this the best Peckinpah film, and one of the best films ever made. On a rewatch, it finally clicked; this is one of the most personal and self loathing films I’ve ever seen.



The main character of the film, Bennie, is a piano player at a dingy Mexican bar, and he’s approached by some (possibly gay) hitmen to collect a bounty for them; the severed head of a local gigolo named Alfredo Garcia. The only reason Garcia has a bounty on his head is because he impregnated the daughter of a crime lord, but Bennie doesn’t care about the morality of the situation, he just wants to get paid. When the hitmen leave the bar, he interrogates his coworkers, and discovers that his girlfriend, Elita, slept with Alfredo Garcia for three nights. When he goes to confront Elita, she reveals that Garcia went on an alcoholic bender and died in a car crash. After this revelation, Bennie and Elita go on a journey to find Alfredo Garcia’s body.



I remember watching the first hour of this film and being confused at first. I still loved it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Every single review I read about this movie said it was brutal action thriller, but instead I was treated to a tender romance between Bennie and Elita. There’s a pivotal scene in the first half, where both characters rest at a tree stump, and Bennie asks for Elita’s hand in marriage, there’s a deep sadness and regret in both of their eyes. Do they wish they did this earlier? Is it already too late? Maybe it is, but all they can do is hope. Even during what is arguably the “happiest” scene in the film, there’s still dread on the horizon. The camera focuses on 2 bounty hunters passing by the couple in their run down car, watching Bennie and Elita like vultures. It’s almost like Elita knows that her time is running up, she begs for Bennie to just give up and run away from the bounty, but Bennie’s too far gone to give up.



Then the second half of the film happens. Bennie crawls out of a shallow grave, covered in blood, sweat, and tears. He was knocked out by those same bounty hunters that passed him by before. He’s buried in the same grave as his only love, Elita, and the headless corpse of the man who started this whole fiasco; Alfredo Garcia. Bennie ends up getting his revenge on the bounty hunters, and he finally collects the head of Alfredo Garcia. The rest of the film is Bennie losing his mind and going on a murder spree, he is a man with nothing left, no one to love, and no reason to go on. He becomes so delusional to the point where he develops psychosis and starts talking to Alfredo’s severed head, cursing at him for sleeping with the love of his life. Bennie turns to alcohol as an escape, but there is no way out for him, except death. At the end of the film, he hunts down the mob boss who wanted Alfredo Garcia’s head in the first place, and Bennie ends up shooting the boss dead. Bennie tries driving away with Alfredo’s head, but he ends up perishing in a haze of gunfire.



The entirety of the film, is Bennie being emasculated. There’s a scene where he’s in a hotel room, bleeding from his scalp, covered in dirt, and completely drunk, and he can’t even bear to look at himself in the mirror. He desperately wants to be a man, but he has no control over anything in his life. Bennie’s psychotic ramblings towards Alfredo Garcia’s severed head, gives a window into his thought process. Bennie thinks that Garcia stole the love of his life, Elita, and now he’s taunting him from beyond the grave. Alfredo represents everything Bennie wants to be; but can’t. The tragedy of this film is that Bennie can’t even live up to a dead man. He’s self destructive, envious of other men, and deeply cynical about life. At a certain point in the film, he forgets about the money; it’s useless to him now anyways. He just wants to settle the score with the man he blames for ruining his life. His only friend. The rotting head of a gigolo that he never even met.



The violence of this film is one of its best strongpoints. Unlike the stylized bloodshed of The Wild Bunch, or the brutality in Straw Dogs, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia is completely void of any glamour to its violence, instead it’s sudden and clunky. Characters die mid sentence, there’s barely any blood when they get shot, and there’s no sense of satisfaction among the characters who do survive. There is no will to win, just a desire to get it over with. There’s a scene where a hitman gets shot and instead of falling over, he rolls and starts reaching out for his dead mate, desperately trying to grab onto the only thing he cares about. The most brutal part of the film is offscreen, one can only imagine how decayed the rotting, fly covered head of Alfredo Garcia is. The rest of the movie shows its brutality through the rugged hotel rooms that Bennie inhabits, through his cracked and bleeding scalp that never heals, and through the dirt of the shallow grave he dug himself out of; splattered all across his clothes. Peckinpah always said he wanted to demystify violence in his films, and unlike his other efforts, I think Peckinpah succeeded with portraying violence as the raw and ugly state of affairs that it actually is. This is a drama film first and foremost, the bloodshed is a byproduct of the characters animalistic rage, and the world they inhabit.



There’s a scene where Bennie has intercourse with Elita, and he ends up catching lice. He pours alcohol on his crotch to drown the lice, and he has a familiar look of shame on his face. He has that same look later on when Elita gets raped. It comes back for a final time when he realizes that Elita died next to Alfredo Garcia’s body. It’s like the world is taunting him, telling him “you’ll never be the man you want to be”.



Bennie is obviously intended to be Peckinpah. From the sunglasses, to the mannerisms, everything about Bennie screams Peckinpah. I think that makes this film even more interesting than it already is. Bennie’s self destructive alcoholism, his constant anxiety of not living up to his own standards for masculinity, his blatant disregard for anything sacred, and his fears of being out performed by other men, were all some of Peckinpah’s biggest fears. What you have here isn’t just a film; it’s a man trying to find out where he went wrong.



I genuinely can’t overstate how great this film is. This film contains my favorite dialogue of all time, (My personal favorite line is “Have a drink Al!”) the score is impeccable, the cinematography is stunning, the grimy and filthy tone is excellent, everything about this movie is a 10/10. What makes this an all timer for me though, is how deeply personal this is. Peckinpah’s biggest insecurities shine through the character of Bennie, and it’s utterly mesmerizing to watch such a bleak portrayal of oneself. I never thought a film about a man talking to a severed head would be one of the best films I ever saw, but I can guarantee that this is an exceptional film in every metric.

The rapid escalation of "I've got nothing to lose" behavior on display here is insane.

The rapid escalation of "I've got nothing to lose" behavior on display here is insane.

Iconic ending

Iconic ending

(4K)

Death looms so large over this thing. Which is probably appropriate for a film that’s ultimately about grave robbing. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia could honestly operate pretty concisely as something of a sister film to Friedkin’s opus, Sorcerer. Two films that begin and end in such an angry, bloodsoaked outlook on the world and let you just sink in despair, that take its central character and plunge him further and further into darkness until he only slightly resembles the husk of the guy we met at the beginning, all in the pursuit of money and the promise of freedom. Every time I’ve set foot in Sam Peckinpah’s sandbox, I’ve come away realizing that, buried beneath his penchant for blood and gore, is a man with serious and impossibly heavy thought weighing on his shoulders. Reading up on how the main character of Bennie is rather explicitly dressed and performed based upon his own mannerisms gives this whole thing a rather morbid undertone. Gives one the impression that Bloody Sam’s deeply unhappy with himself, and that he’s not sure he even deserves to keep walking above ground. There’s such palpable anger pouring into so much of this. Women are abused repeatedly and frequently, families are gunned down on the side of the road like it’s nothing out of the ordinary, fascists assault their pregnant daughters for unplanned pregnancies and then gloat with their baby after the fact, vicious bikers descend upon couples at dark in the desert. And at the center of all of it is a smooth talking, musically gifted, perpetually drinking bartender just trying to turn a corner for himself and his girlfriend. I do think Peckinpah’s masterpiece (to nobody’s surprise) is The Wild Bunch and, to me, that film does the best at marrying the two sides of him that I appreciate the most: his capacity for balls to the wall volatile action and violence, and for his incredibly profound connection to his emotional depth. This one comes the closest to managing to pull off an even split between the two. Wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be coming right out of the gate. Had honestly thought it was going to settle into the groove of a Rafelson-esque New Hollywood road fable about this troubled couple working around their many, many flaws because they still ultimately love one another, all while the bounty heist looms in the backdrop. For a man who is so frequently unsentimental and unwavering in how he dishes out his violence to his characters, some of the moments between Bennie and Elita are as romantic and deeply feeling as he’d ever gotten. That scene where he finds her in the shower, silently and thoroughly traumatized, and tells her he loves her is staggering considering so much of what surrounds it. Really do have to give it up to Warren Oates here. Of course, I’ve always been aware of him as one of those definitive character actors you can expect to pop up in things and point at with glee once you see him. But seeing him here, in a lead role where he can really sink his teeth into the material is just exhilarating. Knowing that William Friedkin wanted him for the Roy Scheider role in Sorcerer continues to sort of tether the two films together for me because it’s not hard to understand why. Oates handles that exact sort of descent into madness and bitterness and hopelessness effortlessly. Every time the guy hits a bottle of whiskey it’s like you can see him pushing down all his worst feelings. You get flashes and glimpses of the guy when he’s not so down and out. He is not infrequently incredibly tender towards his woman. When we first meet him and he’s playing the piano at his bar, smooth talking his way into tips and free drinks, he’s this lightning rod of charisma that you immediately gravitate towards and find undeniably likable. All it takes is one nightmarish, achingly devastating sequence in a graveyard and all of that changes. Not only does he turn into a raving madman hellbent on revenge. Not only does he become hardened into a killer. But the film itself turns into a completely different animal from what you’ve started out with. Goes fully into the dark as this revenge flick and you really, really want to see him get these fuckers. The way Peckinpah depicts the gun violence and the mass amounts of murder in this thing startled me, to tell you the truth. One gets so used to his westerns like Wild Bunch and Major Dundee (my two favorites of his work, still, with this in solid third) and it’s packed full of all those crimson red squibs that lend it such a heightened and bombastic quality, then you come to this and the bullets just tear through people as uneventfully and plainly as you can imagine. They rarely die in cool ways. They just drop dead. The film’s poster and its lead character asks if this one severed head is worth the lives of so many people, and you really do come away feeling as if you’ve watched such a nihilistic and pointless cycle of bloodletting that amounts to nothing. Becomes less of a hunt for fortune and providence as much as it just becomes a suicide mission being waged by a man who hates himself. Watching him crawl in the dirt of a grave he desecrated, just to figure out somebody else has conned him and taken everything away from him was haunting. Makes the warpath he embarks upon feel less like a big badass getting what’s his and more like a guy spiraling further and further out of control. An all timer feel bad movie. Ends on one of the more haunting final images I’ve seen in some time. Just rages and rages on and on until it stops. Overwhelmingly full of anger and hate and bloodlust, to the point of implosion.

(4K)

Death looms so large over this thing. Which is probably appropriate for a film that’s ultimately about grave robbing. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia could honestly operate pretty concisely as something of a sister film to Friedkin’s opus, Sorcerer. Two films that begin and end in such an angry, bloodsoaked outlook on the world and let you just sink in despair, that take its central character and plunge him further and further into darkness until he only slightly resembles the husk of the guy we met at the beginning, all in the pursuit of money and the promise of freedom. Every time I’ve set foot in Sam Peckinpah’s sandbox, I’ve come away realizing that, buried beneath his penchant for blood and gore, is a man with serious and impossibly heavy thought weighing on his shoulders. Reading up on how the main character of Bennie is rather explicitly dressed and performed based upon his own mannerisms gives this whole thing a rather morbid undertone. Gives one the impression that Bloody Sam’s deeply unhappy with himself, and that he’s not sure he even deserves to keep walking above ground. There’s such palpable anger pouring into so much of this. Women are abused repeatedly and frequently, families are gunned down on the side of the road like it’s nothing out of the ordinary, fascists assault their pregnant daughters for unplanned pregnancies and then gloat with their baby after the fact, vicious bikers descend upon couples at dark in the desert. And at the center of all of it is a smooth talking, musically gifted, perpetually drinking bartender just trying to turn a corner for himself and his girlfriend. I do think Peckinpah’s masterpiece (to nobody’s surprise) is The Wild Bunch and, to me, that film does the best at marrying the two sides of him that I appreciate the most: his capacity for balls to the wall volatile action and violence, and for his incredibly profound connection to his emotional depth. This one comes the closest to managing to pull off an even split between the two. Wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be coming right out of the gate. Had honestly thought it was going to settle into the groove of a Rafelson-esque New Hollywood road fable about this troubled couple working around their many, many flaws because they still ultimately love one another, all while the bounty heist looms in the backdrop. For a man who is so frequently unsentimental and unwavering in how he dishes out his violence to his characters, some of the moments between Bennie and Elita are as romantic and deeply feeling as he’d ever gotten. That scene where he finds her in the shower, silently and thoroughly traumatized, and tells her he loves her is staggering considering so much of what surrounds it. Really do have to give it up to Warren Oates here. Of course, I’ve always been aware of him as one of those definitive character actors you can expect to pop up in things and point at with glee once you see him. But seeing him here, in a lead role where he can really sink his teeth into the material is just exhilarating. Knowing that William Friedkin wanted him for the Roy Scheider role in Sorcerer continues to sort of tether the two films together for me because it’s not hard to understand why. Oates handles that exact sort of descent into madness and bitterness and hopelessness effortlessly. Every time the guy hits a bottle of whiskey it’s like you can see him pushing down all his worst feelings. You get flashes and glimpses of the guy when he’s not so down and out. He is not infrequently incredibly tender towards his woman. When we first meet him and he’s playing the piano at his bar, smooth talking his way into tips and free drinks, he’s this lightning rod of charisma that you immediately gravitate towards and find undeniably likable. All it takes is one nightmarish, achingly devastating sequence in a graveyard and all of that changes. Not only does he turn into a raving madman hellbent on revenge. Not only does he become hardened into a killer. But the film itself turns into a completely different animal from what you’ve started out with. Goes fully into the dark as this revenge flick and you really, really want to see him get these fuckers. The way Peckinpah depicts the gun violence and the mass amounts of murder in this thing startled me, to tell you the truth. One gets so used to his westerns like Wild Bunch and Major Dundee (my two favorites of his work, still, with this in solid third) and it’s packed full of all those crimson red squibs that lend it such a heightened and bombastic quality, then you come to this and the bullets just tear through people as uneventfully and plainly as you can imagine. They rarely die in cool ways. They just drop dead. The film’s poster and its lead character asks if this one severed head is worth the lives of so many people, and you really do come away feeling as if you’ve watched such a nihilistic and pointless cycle of bloodletting that amounts to nothing. Becomes less of a hunt for fortune and providence as much as it just becomes a suicide mission being waged by a man who hates himself. Watching him crawl in the dirt of a grave he desecrated, just to figure out somebody else has conned him and taken everything away from him was haunting. Makes the warpath he embarks upon feel less like a big badass getting what’s his and more like a guy spiraling further and further out of control. An all timer feel bad movie. Ends on one of the more haunting final images I’ve seen in some time. Just rages and rages on and on until it stops. Overwhelmingly full of anger and hate and bloodlust, to the point of implosion.

they really don't make movies like these anymore


#7

they really don't make movies like these anymore


#7